Over a year ago, we had a great experience here. The San Antonio Mercedes dealership told us our older Mercedes needed $1,000's in work and the service manager (Tim) assured us this was untrue and righted our course. Later, they replaced a fuel pump at a reasonable rate. This year, we brought the car in (check engine light was on) and were told we needed a new thermostat which they charged well above the predicted market rate to perform. There is a new service manager who is polite but I just didn't feel the same trust that I had the year before. 3 days after the thermostat replacement, the check engine light was back on and Dealer Alternative told us the waste gate was stuck "open" and unfortunately the entire turbo system would need to be replaced. Gulp, $4,200+ I checked with a well known foreign car garage in Austin and they provided a Mercedes master mechanic contact. $271 later, the master mechanic has replaced a breather hose, a vacuum hose , reconnected two loose hoses and of course charged the diagnostic fee around the turbo issue. Guess what, the turbo is fine and the car purrs. So, did Dealer Alternative knock hoses loose which created the code, or take a short path and just use the code to justify an expensive repair? Did they lie flat out about the waste gate being stuck? I don't know. But I'm very disappointed and don't feel they are the right folks for something other than minor repairs
That’s unfortunate. We very rarely make a poor diagnosis, but it does happen. We performed all the test available to us to condemn the wastegate, but if we were incorrect, we apologize. Please feel free to come to the shop to discuss restitution for our incorrect diagnosis.
- Dealer Alternative Auto Care